From every vantage point, it was a historic chapter in California’s political history: The Legislature capped off its recently finished session by sending half a dozen immigration bills to the governor.

The state Capitol had not seen such substantial action on immigration for two decades. The occasion was highly unusual not only because of how many measures were passed, but also because much of the legislation deals with the bitterly fought issue of unauthorized immigration.

The bills would, among other things, allow those living in California illegally to obtain a driver’s license and practice law, bar local police from turning over people with minor offenses for deportation and ban employers from retaliating against workers by threatening to alert immigration authorities.

It is unclear whether voters will support the Legislature’s Democratic super-majority in building on this year’s milestone or mount enough of a backlash to oust those lawmakers. Also uncertain is how Republican leaders will balance their desire to not appear anti-immigrant with calls from core constituents to counter Democrats more forcefully on immigration topics.

“California learned it’s not helping the immigrants or anyone else to have a shadow community that is completely unable to do basic activities,” said Angélica Salas, chairwoman of the CHIRLA Action Fund in Los Angeles. “Our California campaign to move immigration reform forward is only going to intensify.”

Others said the Legislature is suffering from a liberal takeover that’s out of touch with the majority of Californians.

“We are no longer in control of our government. ... I’m hearing tremendous opposition on a number of fronts,” said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks.

Donnelly, a former member of the Minuteman movement that opposes unauthorized immigration, said the only way to effect change on this issue is through voting. “We are getting close to the point where we will see a major revolution that will start in California,” he said.

Beyond lawmakers

Similarly stark differences of opinion are being expressed outside of legislative and advocacy circles.

In downtown Oceanside, Richard Carbajal said laws to help the unauthorized are long overdue.

“These immigrants are contributing to our society, and they’re not asking for much except to be allowed to do daily things like drive legitimately and have a better future for their children by sending them to college,” said Carbajal, 44, who came down from El Monte to spend time with friends. “They are here to stay. Why not face reality and make them more part of mainstream society?”

At the Filter Coffee House in Hillcrest, Dylan Sparks shook his head when asked about the latest immigration bills in Sacramento.

“They’ve gone too far, just overboard,” said Sparks, 21, a business major at San Diego State University who has attended a few meetings of the on-campus Young Republicans club. “I don’t think you have to knock down doors and haul away illegal immigrants in the middle of the night, but offering them many of the same rights that U.S. citizens have is too much. It just encourages more people to break the law by coming here illegally.”

Sparks said he admires Republican leaders who can reach out to Latinos on their biggest priorities and still not shy away from calling for more border enforcement and mandatory employment screening, which he believes would be the main deterrent for people coming to the U.S. without permission.

“If there were officials like that in California, I would vote for them,” he said.

Sparks also said his parents think he’s foolhardy.

“They have told me about Proposition 187,” he said, referring to the 1994 initiative that would have stripped education, health care and other services from those living in California illegally. Former San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson and other Republican leaders spearheaded the measure, which voters passed but courts later ruled as unconstitutional. By most counts, the law eventually prompted a backlash against the GOP, with accusations of the party being anti-immigrant and inhumane.

Mixed polling

Whether Democrats will face voters’ wrath for this year’s immigration agenda is difficult to gauge, partly because there has been little polling on issues addressed by the recent spate of bills.

One controversy that a handful of surveys have tackled is the question of whether unauthorized immigrants should have a driver’s license.

The Field Poll first asked Californians about that in 2005, when 35 percent of respondents said the unauthorized should be able to do so and 62 percent disagreed. When the question was posed again in September 2012, 40 percent agreed and 56 percent disagreed. And in the most recent Field Poll, conducted in February, 52 percent agreed and 43 percent disagreed.

On Sept. 16, a Survey USA poll conducted for U-T San Diego and Channel 10/KGTV showed that in San Diego County, 31 percent of respondents agreed and 67 percent disagreed.

In Sacramento, Republican political consultant Rob Stutzman said both lawmakers and the public seem to be moving toward the middle when it comes to immigration issues.

“Immigration is not as white hot as it used to be, as a political issue,” said Stutzman, who served in the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Border states with heavy immigrant populations are starting to dabble around the edges to find practical solutions.”

More state action?

This watershed year has “laid the groundwork to look at decreasing the disparity in health care, education and job opportunities,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles. “There are still significant disparities between the immigrant community and the rest of the population.”

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, wants more of the unauthorized to be hired legally so “they pay their fair share of taxes” while receiving protection from anti-discrimination laws. She also intends to focus on the growing use of unauthorized immigrants as independent contractors, which she said is spurring an underground economy. And she is intent on getting the state to help U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants who have been deported.

Other immigration measures circulating in the Legislature include Senate Bill 23, which would fund a statewide office of immigrant affairs, according to Salas of the CHIRLA Action Fund.

“To say the Legislature is out of step, no data suggests that,” Gonzalez said. “If the federal government is not going to act on immigration reform, then a big state like California … has a responsibility to move forward.”

In Lake Murray, resident David Stroup also hopes Congress will break its long gridlock on dealing with immigration reform. Yet he disagrees with those backing state action amid that federal vacuum.

“I agree immigration is broken, but I think the state doing things like that without the federal government is a real problem,” said Stroup, an electronics engineer who described himself as not being an advocate on any side of the unauthorized-immigration debate.

National picture

Nationwide, state legislative bodies approved more immigration-related laws and resolutions between January and June of this year than during all of 2012, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Driver’s licenses and identification cards were the top immigration issue this year. They made up 23 percent of all enacted laws on immigration in 2013.

Law-enforcement provisions accounted for 11 percent, down from the previous two years when enforcement-centered measures took top billing.

Other new immigration laws included those authorizing funds for English language and citizenship classes, providing money for additional enforcement, tightening immigration and residency requirements for higher education, dealing with employers who do not verify potential workers’ residency status and extending in-state tuition benefits to the unauthorized.

Most statehouses had remained relatively quiet on immigration legislation in recent years, as they waited for a U.S. Supreme Court decision on an especially divisive immigration law in Arizona.

Ann Morse,program director for the Immigrant Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislators,said the high level of state activity this year resulted from the high court throwing out some key components of that Arizona law. Another factor, she said, was the Obama administration’s relatively new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program,which waives deportation for certain young unauthorized immigrants and allows them to work legally in this country.

Many of the bills approved or pending were created in response to the deferred-action program, Morse said.

“It seemed like it opened the door,” she said. “If the administration was going to give these kids temporary status, then in-state tuition and driver’s licenses were two things states could do.”